Kate Steinle’s Family Laments Trump Using Her Murder As Political Fodder

Kate Steinle of San Francisco was shot by a Mexican felon, and her family says that Donald Trump’s comments on her death are unwelcome political fodder. (Gage Skidmore / Flickr Creative Commons photo)

The grieving relatives of a California woman gunned down by a career criminal who had been deported to Mexico nearly a half dozen times say right now is not the time to put a political spin on a tragic situation.

Over the weekend, the parents of Kathryn Steinle said political remarks made by Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump and others were not going to bring their slain daughter back.

Steinle, 32, was killed last week in front of San Francisco’s Pier 14, a popular tourist destination, after she posed for a photograph with her father. She passed away from a gunshot wound en route to a nearby hospital.

Francisco Sanchez, 45, was arrested a short time after the shooting. In a interview with a local television station, Sanchez said he found a firearm wrapped in a T-shirt near the pier last Wednesday. The gun accidentally discharged, Sanchez said, at which point he threw the weapon into the waters of the San Francisco Bay, lit a cigarette and walked off. Sanchez told KGO-TV’s Cornell Bernard he wasn’t aware he had shot someone until he was arrested by police about an hour later. His version of events contradicts with an earlier chronology he gave police in which he claimed to have been shooting at sea lions and missed.

According to records, Sanchez has a lengthy criminal history and has been deported to Mexico at least five times. In his interview with KGO, he said he recently settled in San Francisco knowing it was a so-called “sanctuary city,” a community in which police do not actively arrest or deport undocumented workers based on their immigration status because local laws do not allow for municipal funds to be used toward those initiatives and do not allow officials to cooperate with immigration investigations.

Kathryn Steinle, left, 32, was fatally shot after posing for a photo at Pier 14 in San Francisco last week. Francisco Sanchez, right, 45, has reportedly confessed to the killing. (Steinle family handout/San Francisco Police Department photos)

In the wake of Steinle’s killing, San Francisco’s status as a sanctuary city has come under fire, particularly from right-leaning media outlets and politicians who have seized on the moment to challenge the predominantly liberal Bay Area. Trump released a statement Friday through a series of tweets in which the Republican presidential contender asserted the United States’ border with Mexico was “unsecure” and “totally out of control.”

A Trump campaign official later released a statement to KCBS-AM in which Trump promised that acts of violence like the one that killed Steinle “won’t happen if I become president” because he pledges to build a wall between the United States and Mexico. “I am the only candidate who would build it,” Trump promised.

For Steinle’s parents, Trump’s comments are nothing more than unwelcome political rhetoric. Liz Sullivan, Steinle’s mother, said she generally agreed that if Sanchez had been permanently deported to Mexico, her daughter might still be alive. But “this is not the time for political statements,” she said in a radio interview broadcast by KCBS-AM on Sunday.

Immigration officials also concede that Sanchez should not have been allowed back in the country. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested Sanchez three months ago pursuant to a drug warrant and turned him over to police in San Francisco, according to CBS News. But Sanchez was released just a few weeks later after a county attorney determined that the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department did not have legal authority to keep the man in detention. ICE officials said a “detainer” had been issued for Sanchez that normally would have flagged his release, but that the detainer failed because authorities in San Francisco did not notify federal officials before releasing Sanchez.

“ICE places detainers on aliens arrested on criminal charges to ensure dangerous criminals are not released from prisons or jails into our communities,” Virginia Kice, a spokesperson for ICE, told CBS News.

Sanchez, who does not have an attorney, told KGO he wants “the highest punishment” and plans to tell the court and Steinle’s family that he “no longer wants to live.”

It’s patently obvious the type of element being ushered into the country *en masse* by corrupted oligarchic politicians who have ulterior motives, are bought and paid for, and crave to consolidate another preconditioned prejudiced voting bloc To listen to the flailing liberal media, you’d think it was those darned Mormons or Mennonites who were causing all the problems in the country. You people are sickly delusional and mendacious to the point of appearing to be demon-controlled puppets.

If I where a small time criminal wanted in mexico, where would I go. San Fransisco. Now I’ve got a clean record and government assistance. Did I learn my lesson. No. I’m emboldened. If I commit another crime in San fransico I’m released. Did I learn my lesson. No. Now I’m carrying a knife or a gun. Why is this so hard to wrap your head around. We want LEGAL immigration ,but you guys that keep supporting illegal immigration because they are just poor hard working people are creating anarchy. Its not our fault that mexico has crated a political environment that poor people are fleeing. We want immigrants from this class but it has to be controlled. If its not happening fast enough for you so you just want illegal immigration now, or no borders/is anarchy , then YOU deserve to pay the price of anarchy. Don’t cry to me when your wife son daughter gets cut down by the anarchy you asked for. This has to be done within the context of the law and the borders have to be enforced. This is not a difficult concept. This country is not going to perish if we don’t insist on allowing hundreds of thousands of illegals to move in every year. We want a controlled flow of good immigrants worldwide, not from just mexico. The illegals that are here should be required to obtain work permits immediately, and if they do not, we have to deport . If they do register then they should be tracked and apply for citizenship, and only become citizens if they prove they can benefit this country and only if we can financially support their citizenship. This has to be agreed upon by our elected reps. If you want anarchy, don’t cry when you look out you front door and the neighbourhood you once knew and love looks more like the same third world country all of these immigrants are fleeing . Its not there fault its your fault.